Apparently, Vin Diesel is a “names-will-never-hurt-me” kind of guy because he had some nice things to say about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, his “Fast and Furious 8” co-star who not too long ago alluded to him being an unprofessional “candy ass.”

In a rambling Facebook Live interview with fans, Diesel intentionally or not attempted to tamp down rumors of a feud between him and Johnson. While not addressing any feud directly, Diesel said he was happy to have Johnson as part of the popular race-car movie franchise.

“The reason we brought Dwayne Johnson into ‘Fast Five’ was because of you!’ Diesel said to fans. Diesel is also a producer of the films.

“There was a girl named Jan Kelly who said, ‘I would love to see you work together on screen.’ So the role that was originally written for Tommy Lee Jones, we gave it to Dwayne and he shined in it.”

Diesel’s post comes as feud rumors continued to swirl around the two co-stars. The bad blood became public after Johnson posted on Facebook a comment that praised his female co-stars but called out unnamed male co-stars for unprofessional behavior.

“Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” Johnson wrote. “The ones that don’t are too chicken (expletive) to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses.”

Johnson’s post led to immediate speculation about which male co-star or co-stars he was talking about. Aside from Diesel, other suspects were Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Lucas Black, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges and Scott Eastwood.

But multiple sources have said that Johnson’s beef was with Diesel, and it centered around choices that Diesel had made as producer.

Speculation that hard feelings still simmered between the two tough-guy actors intensified Friday when Johnson announced that production on “Fast 8” had wrapped.

He posted a note on Facebook, thanking the film’s director and singling out specific co-stars for praise, notably Eastwood, Gibson and Natalie Emmanuel.

Martha Ross is a features writer who covers everything and anything related to popular culture, society, health, women’s issues and families. A native of the East Bay and a graduate of Northwestern University and Mills College, she’s also a former hard-news and investigative reporter, covering crime and local politics.

The agency’s hiring surge is only for half of the funds generated under SB 1; the other half is going to cities and counties for transportation improvements projects, which are also expected to generate new jobs.